Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony and Aunt Natalie
Anthony's Aunt Natalie (my brother's Alan's wife) was in town, and stopped by with her mom for a visit. After a while, everyone went out to the sand pile to chat and play, and I ran for my camera...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Natalie's Mom Bears Gifts of Bubbles
for cousins Anthony and Josh
(while in the background, under cover of pink, Josh's sister awaits birth)
Bubbles are always a hit, because kids love bubbles. Any time.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125 mm — 1/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
This Is How Children Should Spend Their Time
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150 mm — 1/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bubble Satisfaction
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 110 mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Adobe has just released Version 2 of its Lightroom photo-workflow application:
- Adobe's Lightroom 2 page
- Adobe announcement (long!)
- What's New in 2.0 (a very long list from Victoria Bampton)
- My Lightroom Goodies Page
In conjunction, I am releasing export plugins that I've been working on solidly for the last six months:
- Export Plugin for Zenfolio
- Export Plugin for SmugMug
- Export Plugin for Flickr
- Export Plugin for Picasa Web
- Export Plugin for Facebook
The Facebook plugin is new for Lightroom 2 (and still very “beta”), while the others are totally rewritten versions of the plugins I had for Lightroom 1. (If you are currently a user of one of my Lightroom 1 plugins, be sure to see the section on migration later in this post.)
I'm also releasing Jeffrey's Metadata Wrangler Export Filter, a plugin filter that allows selective control of which metadata is written into exported images, regardless of the kind of export. Export filters (what Adobe calls “post-process actions”) are an officially supported replacement for the “piglet” plugin infrastructure that I developed for Lightroom 1.
Plugin installation is much easier with Lightroom 2 than it was with Lightroom 1. I've written up general instructions:
However, with my plugins, you need to pay attention to the install just the first time, because I've built into each the mechanism for self upgrade. When a new version is available, you can upgrade with the click of a button. See details here.
Old 1.x Versions
My old Lightroom 1 plugins still work in Lightroom 2.0, but I no longer support them.
I have been working on these new versions pretty much non-stop for the last six months, which explains why I have not been particularly responsive to issues related to the 1.x versions (sorry).
Overview
Just to give a feeling for some of the capabilities of the new plugins, here is a screenshot of part of Lightroom's export dialog, with my new Export-to-Zenfolio plugin active as the main export, and my Metadata Wrangler filter enabled as well....
There are many other new features not shown in the dialog above, such as little touches like an estimated time for the upload to complete (an example of which is shown at right).
Title and captions now exclusively use the preset templates I previewed in some of the old plugins, but also, with most of the new plugins, you can now use the same templates when creating “auto destinations”. These allow you to specify the upload destination dynamically, e.g. “upload to a gallery with the same name as the master-image folder.” (I'll write about this in more detail another day.)
I'd like to write more here about the little features I've added – I'm proud of how polished some of these plugins are – but I've been working on them so much lately that I've left myself little time to prepare for this announcement. Add in there the fact that I just flew half way around the world to visit my folks for the summer, and have been trying to enjoy my boy enjoying life, and it's been hectic trying to get ready in time.
If it hadn't been for my mom and my sister watching Anthony a lot since I arrived, I'd have never been able to get things ready in time, such as this announcement, a full writeup on Installation and Management of Lightroom Plugins, the writeup on the Metadata Wrangler, etc.
I do need to mention a few important points about the new plugins...
Migrating From the Lightroom 1 Plugins
The Lightroom 1 versions of my plugins are totally separate from the Lightroom 2 versions, which means that the “uploaded to...” history accumulated while using the Lightroom 1 versions is not used by the Lightroom 2 versions. However, once you're ready to switch to the new version, you can migrate the upload history via the “Plugin Extras” menu item for each new plugin...
That brings up an “Extras” dialog that allows you to import data from the old plugin into the new plugin. It also provides an option to clear out old plugin data (which you should do only after migrating any upload history you want to preserve!). These options work on the current catalog, so if you have multiple catalogs, you must migrate each catalog independently.
Also, once you've moved your workflow to the new plugin, you should flush the old plugin's preferences (which are stored per computer, not per catalog). This is especially important for the SmugMug, Zenfolio, and PicasaWeb plugins, since the old preferences contain login credentials. (The new plugins save only encrypted login credentials in the preferences.)
Especially early on, I expect a lot of version churn with these plugins. I've been working on these for ages, but the new plugins have had little real-world testing beyond my own, so I'm sure that once they're out in the wild, bugs will be discovered and reported (and fixed) at a fast clip.
Because I expect rapid changes, and I don't want out-of-date plugins to remain in use, I've built an expiration into the plugins to encourage (and, eventually, force) an upgrade to a newer version. With the one-click upgrade described earlier, this should be of minimal inconvenience.
More to Come...
I've run out of time to prepare for this announcement, so I'll leave the presentation to other plugin features for a post another day. In the mean time, give them a try and let me know what you think...
At the moment, I'm sitting out by the sandpile at my folks' place where Anthony and his cousin Josh like to play, with my laptop working on some new Lightroom tools while the kids play. How silly of me not to have brought my camera, because there are so many adorable scenes as the kids – 2 years old and five years old – play together.
Just now, Josh was holding a big plastic baseball bat taller than he was, running in circles after Anthony, who carried a big red ball. It started as Anthony trying to get away from Josh so that Anthony could play with the ball by himself, but it became a silly game of chase, with huge giggles and laughs all around.
Wish I hadn't left the camera inside...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155 mm — 1/500 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Now that we're a Grandma and Grandpa's house in Ohio, Anthony is enjoying the double fun of lots of toys and playing with his two-year-old cousin Josh.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155 mm — 1/250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 75 mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135 mm — 1/320 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/500 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Off To “Search For Lions”
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Groundhog Sighting
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Takeoff Speed
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Caught a Santa-Claus Fuzzie
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Making a Wish
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sending It On Its Way
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Water Fountain
Detroit Metropolitan Airport
As I mentioned in my previous post, Anthony and I just flew to my folks' place in Ohio, from Kyoto.
The 12-hour flight went as fine as a 12-hour flight can go. We actually took off ahead of schedule(!), and made more time during the flight, so we arrived half an hour early. Kudos to Northwest for that.
We had a couple of hours in Detroit for customs/immigration, and to make our connection to Cleveland. Everything went smoothly, so we had time to check out a fun fountain in the middle of the main terminal.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
The red thing above is a shuttle train. It actually comes right into the terminal. Very cool.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sometimes, the water streams jumped all around...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 28 mm — 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
We eventually had to make our way under the runways to the “C” terminal for our flight, in what appears to be almost an exact copy of the under-runway tunnel in Chicago, except Chicago has weird music and neon lights, while Detroit has weird music and non-neon lights.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/20 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hanging Around Waiting
As we approached the halfway mark of this tunnel, I noticed a big curtain-gate starting to slowly shut. People a few seconds ahead of us had strolled past the shutting gate, and from the looks of the speed, Anthony and I could stroll by with plenty to spare (it wouldn't finish closing for another full minute), but some snot-nosed rent-a-cop standing there decided that we would be the first people he wouldn't let by, so we and everyone coming after us, from either side, had to wait for no apparent reason.
Slowly, slowly, slowly the curtain moved from right to left. Some Northwest pilots were not far behind us, and were like “come'on, dude, let us go!” but the rent-a-cop said no. I don't really know why I or anyone else felt compelled to abide by what the guy said (he wasn't police, port authority, sheriff, etc... he was at the exact same authority level as a sanitation engineer), but no one complained too loudly, and eventually the curtain closed and the matter was settled. Anthony and I sat down.
The annoying “funky” music, and ever-changing colors continued...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/6 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Waiting
Half an hour later, the gate opened as inexplicably as it had closed, and the two groups of people that had built up on either side of the gate simultaneously tried to proceed, which created quite a crush until the gate opened sufficiently (it was a slow-moving gate, as I mentioned before).
Anthony and I still had plenty of time before our flight, so we waited at the side until the floods cleared. Eventually, we could join the other salmon headed upstream.
The flight from Detroit to Cleveland is only 25 minutes, but we spent about 30 minutes taxiing before. At some point about when we were ready to take off, Anthony asked whether we were there yet. Even though we hadn't taken off, I noted “we're half way there, time wise”.
My mom picked us up at the airport, and he slept for the hour ride home. Of course, he was full of energy once we got to the wealth of toys that is Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — 1/350 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sand Play
With his two-year-old cousin, Josh
The big backhoe is a favorite he remembers from last year and from the year before.
Josh is two years four months old, and so this is the first time that he and Anthony can actually play together. They're definitely both little boys, so trucks and sand and crashing things... they're two peas in a pod.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
It's almost 8pm as I write this, and the sun's still out, and so are the boys. They're out playing in the sand pile while Grandma watches. I slept well last night, but jet lag is always a big problem for me, and I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Will sleep soon....